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Dr. T. V. Rao is currently Chairman, TVRLS. A former professor and Board member at IIMA, Dr. Rao is the Founder President of National HRD Network and has been in the forefront of HRD movement in the country. Dr. Rao worked as a short-term consultant to UNESCO, Bangkok; USAID Indonesia; UNIDO Malaysia; and Commonwealth Secretariat, London and as HRD Consultant in India to over a hundred organizations in the public and private sectors. Dr. Rao received many awards including Ravi Matthai Fellow (AIMS), Asia Pacific HR Professional of the year 2019 (APFHRM) and Lifetime Achievement Award from Indian Academy of Management. Authored over 60 books.

Friday, September 18, 2015

Chance is God

Locus of Control: Chance or God?

For several years I have taught Management students and am practicing managers and leaders the concept of Internal Locus of control. I have given questionnaires to assess the extent of internality or externality of people. I have always recommended that unless one feels that one has control over things that happen to him or her, one may not put in his/her best effort. I feel to a large extent we are the product of our inner talent, hard work and efforts. This approach is necessary to make things happen. 

Do we really make things happen? However as one grows and with series of encounters and experiences, one begins to feel the extent to which we are not always in control of things. There seem to be too many factors that effect both the nature of effort we put in and the outcomes.. For example if I want to reform the Board of Governors of an Institution for which I work, can I do it alone, howsoever I may believe in my own competence or the genuineness of the need? What if I made choices other than those I made at different points of time? Am I responsible for the same? For example what if I persisted and managed to go abroad to study? What if I did not come in touch with people like Fr. Gordon? or EGP or Dr. Praful Dave or Udai Pareek/ or McClelland or Ravi Matthai or Samuel Paul etc. What if I married some one else than Jaya? What if am born in another family than to Raghavamma? What if did not start NHRDN? What if I drafted the constitution of NHRDN differently ? What if I did not leave IIMA after I got 20 year service medal? What if we did not start AHRD? What if AHRD was not shifted to Hyderabad due to land promised by Industrialists there? What if we refused to take AHRD back to Ahmedabad in 2000 after Dr. Reddy's term as Chairman was over? There are innumerable "whats" for which there is no answer. life is full of points and each point gives us a new turn. When we take a turn we take the decision and feel that we made it. Some times we feel so without knowing the way the future is going to take the turn. What turn it will take is not in our hands. Then in whose hands?. It is filled with chance factors. chance after Chance and chance after chance. It is these series of chances that I have begun to feel that we name as God or Luck. Nothing is in our hands. It is in the hands of God or Luck. Prayer helps to keep us energetic and keep making efforts. 

But what does prayer mean? Prayer means to be good. to think good, to speak good and to do good. Prayer puts us in a different pedestal. It does not matter what happens to us in praying we are trying to be good. When one is good  to ourselves and to each other then the sorrows of the world will take a different meaning. Experience the new world assuming that there is nothing in your hands. Do your duty. Keep doing what you are supposed to do. Lord Krishna gave so much wisdom and Jesus Christ gives direction to this wisdom. Buddha shows salvation for self. Only your thoughts, desires and actions are in your control to a large extent. Everything will pass good or bad. Best of Luck to keep your efforts to get you luck. 

2 comments:

Dr. Shankar Anappindi said...

"It is these series of chances that I have begun to feel that we name as God....."

While I absolutely identify with your core thought in the above sentence, am of the view that more than GOD it is the CHOICE that one makes. However, interestingly we don't know how to phrase this phase / journey through chances and tend to give it a name GOD to the one that clicked.

To put it straight, it is about making a CHOICE from the CHANCES & saying that I found GOD in in it....and GOD is nothing but the OUTCOME (a successful outcome). Else we would have called it DEVIL.

Thank you,

Dr. Shankar Anappindi
9849669966

Libin james said...

I am a post graduate student in HR. Sir as you define chances make one succesful in life, you may call it God.. Then what is luck ? Each one have to chose from the list they have. They must be lucky enough to have those good options in the list. Is it chance? luck ? Or God's plan